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If Arsenal can’t afford to buy Suarez now, then where has the money gone?

Are Arsenal Becoming A Laughing Stock? by Dan Smith

Maybe I should give Arsenal the benefit of the doubt and leave my judgement until the end of January, but if the only thing that is stopping us from signing Suarez is not wanting to pay 20 million right now (according to Marca), then it’s time for clarity. We know Stan Kroenke’s transfer policy, we don’t like it, but we know he lacks the ambition of other owners and won’t take that extra step to make us into champions. The owner wants us to be a self-financed model but if he’s saying in 2019 we need to haggle over 20 million, then where the hell has the money gone?

We are in an era where the game has never been richer, 60 pounds for shirts, Gooners charged the most expensive tickets, us sharing a TV contract worth billions. So, there is no reason for us to be so worried about every last penny spent. Why send your recruitment team round the world looking for value if you’re not prepared to even fork out the minimum? It’s like giving your child 50p to spend at his school disco while his mates have a fiver. That’s how it feels. It’s embarrassing and pathetic to see us going around Europe trying to buy other side’s cast offs and those on the scrap heap and not even be able to negotiate those deals. We are a laughing stock.

The one side who every window manages to leak out who they like and spend weeks bartering over every last pound.
As soon as Chelsea were linked with a striker the other day, hours later it was confirmed. Solanke failed a medical at Palace meaning Bournemouth simply asked Liverpool to value the striker. One club came up with sum, the other had a choice of yes or no. It really is that simple, yet we always drag our feet.

This penny-pinching policy has seen us miss out on targets before. Barcelona are asking for a fair price and eventually might talk to other parties. Meanwhile the player himself can’t feel that special, knowing we are so reluctant to pay the standard rate in this climate. I would have preferred a statement a month ago saying zero business would be taking place this month. Yes, there would have been backlash but it’s better than watching us look pathetic. We are supposed to be a big club and one of the richest, yet we are asking for other teams rejects and trying to do it on the cheap.

In my opinion the Catalans have called our bluff. We said a loan deal leading to a fee in the summer, the La Liga champions have simply said if we want him so badly what’s the harm in giving 20 million a few months early? Unless we only wanted it to be a loan deal, a way to give the squad an extra body the cheapest way possible?

We can’t keep hiding behind the fact we are not getting Champions League income. There are so many other revenue streams that if 20 million is going to hurt the books, then where has the money gone?

97 thoughts on “If Arsenal can’t afford to buy Suarez now, then where has the money gone?”

We all know where money goes, why we are all still suprised? But still I am optimistic about the way and direction Arsenal is going forward expec when Emery will get rid of Ramsey and all the deadwood finally!

TH14, Sorry if you already found my post in previous topic but I thnik you did not….

Ramsey was never good enough for Arsenal. If he comes from…. let’s say Poland or Nigeria he would be long gone by now.
If Juventus getting Ramsey for free is true, then it will be interesting and funny to see reaction of Christiano Ronaldo when Ramsey runs in the way of Ronaldo’s shot on goal or bumps into his line of movement! ….as Ramsey does to Laza and Auba often. This is how I look at this player.

… and never enough of repeating:
Why Aaron Wenger’s Ramsey is leaving for free?
Cos all those years NOBODY wanted to buy him, that’s why!

I’ve written about this before on this blog and the truth is none knows. Something doesn’t add up. It’s either the club self financing model is forever playing catch up or funds are being diverted. Check this.
Club makes £420m odd a year (£210m TV, £105m commercial, £105m gates) and spends around £220m on wages and £70m-£80m on operational costs. That leaves £120m-£130m for transfers (or profit). Yet every summer we are told the transfer kitty includes the cost of wages (already in the above!) How’s that possible? Transfer kitty should legit be at least £120m plus any additional revenue on top the above. If the summer transfers were £70m, then there should be £50m for the January window, yet here we are haggling over a Barca surplus player.

This question should headline every article. We are top 5 in clubs generating revenue & spent like the bottom 20%. These facts should be published daily until #silentstanout has to speak publicly on it in person. We can spend like PSG & not be called in for FFP.
To make things worse, we are like 1 of 5 clubs in all the FA where the manager has not invested a penny of his own money.😂😂😂🤕

I totally agree Dan.
I think our patience for waiting to compete is coming to an end. I hope that if come the summer and we don’t splash to make ourselves contenders then we should boycott just like Blackpool is doing. The FA should never allow English institutions to be sold to people who don’t care about the club, sport or fans

I think its Wenger’s fault, because he bought mustafi and xhaka for a combined fee of £70m pounds we r now left with nothing to spend!!! I also believe that if Wenger didn’t buy aubumeyang and lacxazzete, we could have had enough money to buy Denis Suarez,soooo blame Wenger pure and simple!!!!

Tell me which of the top 6 clubs hasn’t had unsuccessful transfers in the last 5 years. All such players who did not succeed or done anything special in the other top 6 clubs cost twice more than Mustafi and Xhaka or similar. Morata, Bakayoko, Di Maria, Pogba, Lindellof, Schneiderlin, Mangala, Loveren, Sisoko and Lamela to mention just a few. It is only Wenger that his signings must 100% succeed. Besides, Arsenal takes gambles by going cheap and if you think the result will change because you have “diamond eye” then you are deluded. The result so far is players that are not better than those already here – Guendouzi, Lichtsteiner, Leno, Sokratis. Torreira (so far so good) is the only one that has been very promising.

Wenger wanted a CB instead of Auba, it was Sven who wanted Auba…
Like Sven wanted Mkhi for Alexis while Wenger wanted Martial.

Mustafi was signed after we had already basically agreed his deal but held off as Arsenal appeared to be after alternative options, we missed out on them all due to lack of funds and panic bought Mustafi. If rumors was true then Wenger didn’t want Mustafi.

Wenger did want Xhaka and TBH he is playing regularly for Emery… Either Wenger and Emery are both wrong or Xhaka has something going for him which Managers seem to like.

Xhaka has bn a great additions to the club, he belongs to that class of players u don’t notice their impacts till u pull them out of the team, we v always looked out of place in recent times without xhaka conducting affairs from the middle, yeaaa he might be unlucky a times with some sloppy passes Buh duh is just the conductor in that middle

Never Seen a player give the ball away as much as Xhaka and for those moaning about Auba, at the moment he has a higher strike rate than Thierry Henry. Xhaka and Mustafi at the combined total of £70 million has got to be the biggest waste of money in the history of the Premier League except for Pogba and Lukaku

Midkemma true Mkhi was a bust from Sven, but absolutely no way United was going to swap Sanchez for Martial. I’m sure most fans would have preferred Martial also, but that deal was never going to happen, if with cash added in deal.

I can accept we may not have been able to get Martial due to our ex CEO but not because UTD was saying no way. We could have said no way for Alexis… We had MORE power than them. They wanted him and before City could get him. He could have picked City at the end if we rejected UTD because they didn’t value him correctly.

I do get frustrated at seeing how we undervalue our own players.

Who thought we would get more than £10 million for Theo? More than £10 million for The Ox?

I actually think we should have gotten more when thinking about it in hindsight. Only £35 million for the Ox, a player with vast EPL experience and unquestioned potential… All us fans was saying how Wenger was ruining him by not playing him consistently in a single role to learn that role…

When we look at the sales of out players over the last decade, they have been very poor sale negotiations, only UCL fee for a while for our best players….

I wonder how much we have lost out on if we could have maximised the fees we received? Also things like Gnabry… All adds towards a loss of funds 🙁

Excellent reply my friend, and I can only agree. The mismanagement of sales and contracts has damaged us far more than anything except our reluctant owner. The saddest part is the financial injuries we have sustained, many have been self inflicted. Poor purchases, poor resales, and contract blunders both resigning and not signing, haunt us still.

Even the best case will take several years to correct, and with the money we are willing to spend each window, we will consistently be playing catch up.

In my opinion, the best way would be how Liverpool spent their money. Identify the problem areas, and bring in the players by a couple big windows. Honestly, Liverpool won’t have to spend big for nest couple years to remain competitive; solid manager, quality players, which also buys time to bring in the quality youth. Liverpool can remain a force in the PL and CL without having to spend hundreds of millions to stay competitive.

I know it will take time which, humph, more time to wait… But I no longer feel like the wait will be followed by another wait.

On the bright side, it could mean we have a squad which some kids can step into, if we need players and can’t afford to splash out each year then I hope to see more kids make it and develop into the stars we hope they will.

Liverpool have promoted a couple kids who are rewarding them, ain’t they?

I want to assume that this is a sacarstic comment. The season we bought Mustafi and Xhaka, the club had income to cover for such. We’re in a fresh season, with fresh income. That excuse is not tenable.

At one time Arsenal were ranked among the top 5 richest clubs
in the world.Since those heady days Arsenal have become a joke
with big losses to the top teams and a then manager who was not interested
in improving the defence with his priority on the attack.
Wtih a US owner who is treating the gunners as a bottomless atm,is it any wonder the gunners cant even afford 10 million quid.
Get reaklistic.The gunners are in the epl to make up the nos and have no hope
of winning the epl and cl until and unless the board changes tack.

Wenger did want a CB in Jan but it was Gazidis who spent too long trying to penny pinch on the Auba deal… Hmmm penny pinching… Oh yeah, wasn’t Wenger blamed for all of that by large portions? I was always maintaining that Wenger wasn’t the sole ill and I was right.

Yet ignorant fans will spew out BS about Wenger and more that BS gets said and read then the more people will ‘know’ this and BS gets passed of as facts.

You then say things will not change unless board changes tack, are you even aware of what has happened at Arsenal?????
We have a new board and that change happened at the start of the season, after the transfer window. Our current board has had no chance to make any real change yet you are saying they need to change tack?

Do you get the stupidity in that?
Board needs to change because we have been bad GRRRR…
Current board isn’t responsible for previous years as it has changed. We know Raul plan is to sort out our spending so we can free up funds. You still moan as if Gazidis was still our CEO.

Oh and our owner isn’t drawing money out every 5 mins like we are a ATM.

A coach who is not interested in defence? Like seriously? Kos/mert combo was of the best in EPL for over 5 years, apart from Wenger’s last 2 seasons that was greatly affected by contract issues of our top stars,we were the 3rd most stingy team in EPL,the amount of lies in this group to demonize Wenger is terrible!

Plain wrong and big time wrong too. MERTS WAS FAR TOO SLOW TO EVER BE RELIABLE AND WAS ALWAYS AN ACCIDENT WAITING TO HAPPEN, as it frequently did. You sound like a MERTS family member, to have written such tosh

Hang on d, that’s Jon your questioning and he only deals in facts and reality.
Let’s just check….checking…checked and your absolutely correct!!!
So who wrote the tosh about having no defence since Sol left?
That, by the way, was with kronkies transfer kitty to play with!!!
Only joking Jon😁😁😁

Kos and Mert partnered for 32 games, with 20-7-5 record. Second best defense one year, and better than what we have now. They only played together for 32 games, so lets not make believe it was a partnership that lasted years.

Hello Ken my friend! Not tosh, but not tops either. However their results over 32 games better than anything I’ve seen lately.
Hopefully this Summer, but the lady is insisting on self sustaining model for our finances, so 2nd job looking likely for few months this Spring to insure the time off is ok financially. Flipping frustrating, but she made a fair point; and is right in the long run.

Teaching doesn’t pay as well as private lab where I used to work.

What do you make of all this restricted finances, inability to fund transfers, and talk coming from our club?

Durand, don’t forget to get in contact when your over…. fancy a trip up to Scotland?

I really am at a loss to understand what our club is doing at the moment.
Just looking at the new revenue coming in this season alone should allow us to buy a player for £20,000,000.

I can accept the thought behind Torreria’s hire purchase deal, but that should have allowed further money for UE to spend shouldn’t it?

I can’t actually remember AFC ever having to admit that it only can afford to take a player on loan.

You and I discussed on many occasions the mystery of the finances and it is just getting even more puzzling.

Of course the restructuring of the club’s backroom staff cost a lot of money and Unai and the three musketeers were another big investment.
But if the reported salaries of AW and Gazidis are taken into account (£12,000,000?) it should have meant close parity was at least achieved surely?

I’m afraid that the”new start”we were promised by two people leaving hasn’t materialised and the one constant feature in all this is, of course, Stan Kronkie.

Things take time as you know Ken, I think we may have a lean year or two to overcome the poor management of Gazidis but unless we had an owner who would loan us the money then nothing can be done.

I do like to bash Silent Stan as much as I can, it is a fun hobby XD
Bashing him because instant change didn’t happen, I feel it would come back and bite me in the backside, things take time to happen…

Midkemma, agree that instant changes don’t happen (reality check for you on six months for UE😉), but the humiliation of having your coach/manager having to come out and say that only loan deals are possible due to financial difficulties is unheard of at our club.

I agree with your assumptions that Gazidis has really screwed us off the pitch over his ten year reign……along with AW on the pitch over the last two years of his reign.
Kronkie has been screwing us ever since he arrived on the scene.

That’s not true as others have mentioned we have many other sources of revenue and we don’t have a “ridiculously high wage bill” compared to other teams , we are certainly making a lot of money and we are one of the top 10 richest clubs in the world , the fact that we are not spending should concern fans about where is the money going ?

Our average salary per players is virtually the same as Liverpool and Chelsea pay who have more engaged owners, CL revenues and much more talented squads. This means to me that we are over paying our squad. Our average wage is around 4.9 million per player Spurs pays 3.5 million per player and are more talented.

… and only City and United have a meaningfully higher wage bill measured in average salary per player pay 6.5 million and 5.9 million per player. We pay 4.9 Chelsea pay 4.9 and Liverpool pay 5.0 million average salary

, We are a world top 6 club, we spend less than Championship level clubs. We are not broke or in any financial danger to break any rules financially. We can legally justify any expenses.
NO MORE EXCUSES!!!! #SILENTSTANOUT

Dan Smith , You are right where is the money gone to and not forgetting that STAN KROENKE is the ONLY owner of a football club who doesn’t inject a single pound with his own pocket money into the club. We need to learn from Blackpool fans “BOYCOTT” the stadium and wait for another billionaire who are have ambition and passion for football to come and take over the club. It is very frustrating for a big club like Arsenal to be fighting for top 4 year in year out. Looking at it Arsenal is not going to win the premiere league for another 10 years if we do not spend big on good quality players.

Where has all the money gone? Dunno…
Not like we had a really bad CEO who wasted our mon… Oh wait, I think I have the answer!

Squirrels!

Joking aside, do you really need to ask this Dan? How long have you supported Arsenal? I know it is more than 6 months… so why not pay attention to more than just results and pitch action?

I have been highlighting how Arsenal have netspend more than Liverpool and Chelsea in an attempt to get people thinking, instead of blindly blaming the owner, have a look at what Arsenal have actually been doing. Perez cost how much and we sold him for how much? How much are we getting for Ramsey? If we want to get into lost funds due to poor contract maintenance then we have a lot to go through… But to put it simply, along from Ramsey, we have lost a fortune on failing to gain adequate fees for them.
Ramsey could be leaving for free.
Alexis left and we was lucky in many ways to get Mkhi.
Wilshere was free for WHU, couldn’t we have at least got £5 or £10 million?
Cazorla free…
Ospina for a loan and buy option of less than £5 million WTF!

Our wages are not a pittance either, we can’t just increase this as we like, we have restrictions for FFP. We may need to get rid of a wage before bringing in a wage.

Another question is why would an owner permit that to happen? How uninvolved can Kronke be to do noting as Ivan continues to sell players for a loss?

The Ramsey contract issue is different; clubs can’t force players to sign or force players to transfer clubs. Ramsey decided to not sign contract offered which is his right. Now he moves on. Raul is correct that contracts should not be allowed to run down to final year.
Sell, transfer, or make clear to player they won’t be involved in future 1st team plans.

Was it Ivan that sold Perez for 4m pounds? Was it Ivan that allowed Wilshire,cazorla and now Ramsey to go for free? Was it Ivan that sold Campbell for 1m pounds, was it ivan that loaned out ospina with an option to sell @ 3m pounds? Was it Ivan that spent 40m pounds on ageing sokratis with little or no resale value and error prone Leno for a combined fee of about 40m pounds? (Two players who has never improved our team) was it Ivan that brought finished lichstinier to our club and took a spot an sccademy player could have taken?

Ivan was the CEO.
His word was final.
Like his word on Auba deal was final even though Wenger was asking for a CB.

Ivan was a nightmare in transfer dealings. At least he listened to Sven. Sven didn’t pick a Perez and it wasn’t Wenger who kinda refused to use him.

That traitor to Arsenal (that is what Gazidis was!) was picking players for his manager, like he had any experience at being a scout… Effing moron!

I do hate that man, sorry Jon, I know you dislike the word hate but Gazidis is one man I would take joy in watching harm come to. Every scream I would be asking “Do you know yet the pain you put every gooner through????” Urghh!

Don’t make excuses for the club , the club may have made some bad decisions about some of the transfers but those moneys are not comparable to what we are making , Arsenal is one of the top 10 richest clubs in the world , we certainly do have money but we are not spending it for some reason , we should find what is that reason before it’s too late , and no it’s not because of a pathetic rule like FFP when we have clubs like PSG , Man City , Man u , Liverpool , Chelsea , Barcelona spending like crazy and yet the rules does not seem to apply to them.

And if find that reason what will you do about. I want the club to spend as much as you want but it is Kronekes decision to make and not ours. It is property and no one can tell him how to run it. Contrary to general believe he only took Money out of the club once.

JustMe, part of it is FFP. look at net spends and ours is one of the highest. Yes, for instance Liverpool paid £75 million for VVD but they received £100 million for Coutinho. Look at the sales of the other clubs you mention and not just the purchases. We have spent large and sold for peanuts, total bad management and now “paying” for it via FFP.

The larger problem in my opinion, is the decisions on the players that were brought in. 35 million on Mustafi was unwisely spent, 35 million for Xhaka is not worth what he brings to the team, Jury still out on Leno, Auba is excellent, Torreira is great business, and I would say Laca is money well spent also.
No one gets it right all the time, but a club of Arsenal’s stature should do better. Perez made little sense at the time, and selling for that meager fee was almost criminal. The issue is about their wages as much as the fee received. Players don’t like paycuts in much the same way as us, so the fees for transfers will net less many times.
There are numbers within numbers that must be considered, and its far different than FIFA19.

The old guard/custodians of our great club have truly let us down..
Firstly they ousted our best share holder who held AFC future at heart by trying to sell the best club in London/England and top5 in the world of football to the Russian Alisher Usmanov (AU) by calming they didn’t want his sort associated with our giant of a club and would rather sell to a clean cut Stan Kroenke (SK)

Fastfoward 10yrs or so and now we see the true colours of real tight-ass gangster that our colossal of a club.. The Great Arsenal Football Club has fallen under, a thug that single handily chocked our club to these pityfull low levels makes me laugh, mad and really angry all at the same time!
How we all got mugged of and still getting played by the “long-con”.. I’m sorry fellow goonz but this ish ain’t gonna get better any time soon as we truly F*CKED as long as Silent Stingy Stans at the realm of our great club, mockery and pain is all we can expect 🙁

Boycott.. boycott BOYCOTT is the only way we can make this twat sell and head to The Barcelona FC model with fans share holders is the only way we can make The Arsenal great again!

I applaud the board for trying to secure a loan deal. In fact, I would very much like a loan deal incase Dennis Suarez turns out to be a flop (which he probably is and that’s why Barca is so keen on kicking him out like Man utd were with dumping Mkhitaryan on us), we can return him back to sender! If he turns to be a hit we can happily cough up the money knowing he is not another Xhaka. Am really happy with how careful the board are this time round with handling our limited resources. Good job board! Loan deal or no deal!

“It’s like giving your child 50p to spend at his school disco while his mates have a fiver. That’s how it feels”

Summed up perfectly!

We have money but are not going to spend it as per, it sits in an account for back up for all the debts. I am not going to bash Arsenal at all as we didn’t expect to be 3pts off top4 at this stage plus we have saw some improvements around the club maybe just not on the pitch as much as we would like but this is a transitional period for Unai to find out who fits his quota for the way he plays & who doesn’t…. I like the fact he has no time for slackers & BS, Ozil & Ramsey respectively.

The summer will tell us alot as we will just fill holes in the squad in January & wait until the sunmer where more money is available with sponsors, league etc… at least some of the dead wood will be gone bit by bit & wage bill freed up for possible future signings.

If we get rid of Ramsey then Leichsteiner, Elneny, Jenko, Cech, Welbz, Koss & possibly Mustafi, then that frees up alot of money for transfers with what we may already have. Unai has said he needs a CB & Winger now so that may happen but won’t be anything major. Mavraponas is back from injury which is brilliant for the defence to cover Rob Holding, who will be back in the summer as he has been the rock at the back we badly miss atm & need him.

Mustafi & Elneny may bring in some money as the rest are free to leave, out of contract. Alot of work to do from now to August to sort this mess out so give the man a season at least go find his own team at Arsenal. No point going on about Stan as he owns the damn club now & nothing will change from the fans perspective anyway.

for as long as this new century is up and running i have heard nothing but the poor mouth when it comes to arsenal. we were constantly being told that we had no money in the bank for years because of the new stadium loan. and now , we have no money because stan the yank is unwilling to spend. yet, we were able to pay the previous managers ridicolous salary without as much as blinking an eyelid. and that same manager made blunder after blunder in the transfer market for years.we will be in the shadow of that managers costly mistakes for a lot of years to come me thinks. he may be gone, but his ugly spectre is still at the emirates for all to see. i am sure his asslickers love that very thought.

Yeaaa the bluder ridden old manager was the reason our yearly turnover improved from 300,000 pounds a year to over 400m pounds a year, the old manager committed a lot of blunders in buying players peanuts and sold them @ mega bucks to keep the club afloat over the years without the owners putting money to the club, the likes of cecs,song,rvp,adebayor,kolo ture,Clichy,helb,overmers,petit,coqulin,nasri,viera,czsesney,etc etc etc will always come to mind,

ger burke, AW qualified for the CL twenty years running.
The money the club received for doing that paid for his salary throughout that period.

Now add the money received for each CL game played, then include the revenue for finishing in the top four for twenty years (plus fifth and sixth the last two years), then add the revenue for seven fa cup wins, three PL titles and the revenue from the different sponsorship deals.
Get the drift? Not peanuts is it?

So, from the gist of your article, the only man who can possibly be blamed is AW because he was paid a salary the club (ie Kronkie) considered he was worth?

Have YOU considered what the three musketeers and UE’s salary would add up to, let alone the money required to bring in all the backroom changes that have occurred?
What’s happened to Gazidis’s salary of a reported £3,000,000 plus?

Some of us on here have been asking for ages why kronkies transfer budget only allowed us to buy second rate players and where the money has gone, but”fans” like you keep regurgitating the same old BS that it’s all Wenger’s fault.

The average revenue for a home game at the Emirates is reported to be just over£3,000,000.
New shirt sponsorship money, record TV monies plus all the club’s merchandising money (shirts etc) have brought in unbelievable revenue for the club and yet we have one player on hire purchase and can’t afford to sign a player for£20,000,000 and you pathetically cry out”It’s all the fault of that nasty Mr Wenger”!!!

How bloo*y idiotic is that?

Blame him for the playing record or the signings if you want, but to just blindly apportion all our problems to him is absolute nonsense and will stop us asking the real questions about the financial situation at club.

What about some further realism from the fans?

The fans cry out our wage bill is too high, but follow that up by bringing out a list of several players who, firstly we can’t afford to sign, and if we could, would actually increase the wage bill.
Then come the list of”deadwood” to sell…. not once thinking that, if they really are deadwood, no one would buy them anyway!
By the way, the club is fifth at the moment with enough, according to some, deadwood to start a forest fire the size of canvey island!!!

The final irony is that this”plan” to make everything better involves kronkie either selling the deadwood and then buying these superhuman players who have salaries of ten bob a week OR buying these players then selling the deadwood.
WHAT COMES FIRST?…CLOUD CUCKOO LAND!!

Ozils salary is obscene, just like most professional footballers today. BUT AFC should be able to pay that kind of salary and, more importantly, if they want to compete against the best, that’s what they have to do…if you can’t see that, then what’s your answer?
I can distinctly remember that fans on here were shouting out loud and clear to give Ozil whatever was needed to sign him up and “prove” we were a big club… funny how that isn’t remembered now isn’t it?

It’s KRONKIE that the fans should be questioning about the money that’s disappeared, along with the previous CEOs role in where we are now and why both UE and AW were put into the position of signing second rate players, on the never never and stooping to the level of a loan deal mentality.

Unless of course you want to blame George Graham for taking bungs and that’s where the money went!!!!
After all, he’s another ex manager.

I personally think the loans only deal is purely due to FFP and the increase in our wage bill from Jan 2018, we increased Ozil wages by 200K per week, brought in Miki for Sanchez which was an increase of between 50 – 80K per week & Giroud left & we bought Auba in again another huge addition to the wage bill of at least 100K per week so this time last year we increased our wage bill by minimum 350K or maximum 400K per week that’s either 18.2M or 20.8M increase per annum.We are potentially losing some big earners off the wage bill in the summer Jenko being one who’s rumoured to be on 65K per week ??? Ramsey will be gone Welbeck too Lichtsteiner & Cech, we signed Nacho up for a years extension, our wage bill needs to decrease before we can afford to sign any players permanently and this won’t be sorted until the summer when we will wheel & deal to sign players but avoid paying astronomical wages, don’t be surprised if Miki is shown the door too,this situation has happened under Ivan’s watch & it’s a mess, so I feel we have the cash to buy but as a business we are waiting for the summer to address the wage bill which must be close to breaking FFP just my thoughts and opinion but it does make sense after the mess of the losses in the transfer market & panic buys, we haven’t been getting value for money in either the transfer market or the negotiatiated wages via Dick Law,this is why a new structure is in place to bring the club closer to achieving things on a better suited budget that suits all but the fans,is just good business acumen and nothing to panic about, our wage bill went from 200M to 235M due to the increases and paying AW & staff off, FFP allows an increase of only 7M a season to comply unless offset with commercial deals etc which we have new deal coming at the end of the season hence why I think we are just watching what we spend until we a) reduce the wage bill massively b) getting paid on deals like Adidas or c) we sell a player for huge money ( no real candidate )

good man ken1945, stull licking that horrible mans ass even after he has gone. it is fans like you that has this club in such dire straits. always remember , older does not always equal wiser, old chap.you dont have the right to have a go at me because of my opinion because you are the elder statesman here, you cant dine out on that all of the time.i am entitled to my opinion, as you well know sir.

ger burke, firstly I have no idea how old you are, but judging by your reply, probably early teens.
As far as I can remember, I have never licked anyone’s ass, something you seem to be very familiar with.
I think your assessment that AW is/was/will be for decades, responsible for everything that is wrong at the club is ridiculous, juvenile, over the top and does nothing to address the issues facing us here and now.
Your entitled to that view, as you correctly say, but until you get your head out of your ass, you won’t see the wood for the trees.
Interesting to note that you did not answer or challenge any of my questions, just a lot more verbal diarrhea.

Imigth not like Wenger as much but he gave us the invisibles, he gave us the Emirates, he bulit unique football philosophy for our club…you might hate him so much but without his brains Arsenal will just be another club struggling. man up. respect the man. he is avery intelligent person. and have abalanced life man.

Without having an opportunity to study the latest Audited accounts it’s impossible to say where the money has gone but in basic terms our income is barely sufficient to meet our overheads the major part of which is players/ staff wages.A full investigation of the Clubs finances may have already been undertaken by the Owner and the outrageous wages paid to the likes of Ozil are unlikely to be repeated .That is clear in the manner in which a hard line was taken with Ramsay and his agent.Unless the Owner is prepared to introduce capital to assist with the acquisition of the new players we badly need we will be obliged to forage for value for money deals .In essence we will never be in a position to compete with the likes of Man City when the very top quality players become available. In these circumstances what we may well have to do is to focus on buying and deve!oping talented youngsters and forget about taking on hasbeens such as Lichsteiner which is throwing good money after bad.

At last some body speaking sense (I get the feeling somebody is in accounts), if you look at the last set of accounts you will notice that we have capitalised the cost of players contracts, increasing the balance of assets and increasing the value of the club, that means we have to deprecate that cost year on year (so a cost on your balance sheet), this could have some affect on FFP (but I’m no expert), also don’t forget we have to pay out bonus’s, wage increases and pay out any structured payments due (as with Torreira), we have staff wages, we have structural improvement and maintaince to the training ground and stadium, and the massive cost incurred just running a business in inner London (Business rates based of square foot) and these all have to come from you limited income.

We haven’t been managing our assets very well over the last 10 years, we let too many players leave for free, we don’t make the most of the loan system (but that sound like it changing with Edu coming back), and we do not have the stars players that we can sell for a profit (who was the last player we sold for more than we paid? the OX), we are now in the Everton/Ajax model grow them, play them, sell them. un less we are sold to some dodgy Arab, or Russian Gangster, we have to lower our sights as we cannot compete Pound for Pound with the big boys, but what we do have that they don’t is a business model that can work in the long run.

Dictators are over thrown, gangsters are thrown in jail and can have their assets stripped, banks can cut your line of credit, and like that their broke just like Leeds.

This business ( because that’s what it is) has been missed managed for far to long and we are now paying the price.

Corporate finance is not the same as personal finance, it just isn’t that black and white.

The business model works to balance the books and grow shares, but it will not bring in titles. Fans don’t pay high ticket prices to make owner profit at the expense of titles. We were told we needed austerity to fund the new stadium, so we could compete with the big clubs. We still have the austerity, but we don’t compete with the big clubs on a regular basis. Thumped by Bayern repeatedly, and how many lopsided losses can we recall over the years since the stadium?

We were sold a bill of goods by Kronke in which he continues to not hold up his end. There is enough blame to go around, AW, Ivan, and Kronke. Fact of the matter is, the buck stops with the owner. It’s his club, his money, and his direction forward. He can step in at any time to rectify the situation, but he much prefers his self serving model that he passes off as self sustaining. I’ve commented on him numerous times from experience here in the States, and there is more than a decade of evidence to show his ownership practices.

He counts money not titles, and he quite clearly stated he’s not in it for the titles. We either can accept that and enjoy the occasional trophy and title chase up to Spring, or move on to something else to consume our time with.

As far as I can see from the avaliable account 1016/17 Arsenals profits before tax was just about 45 million which would leave about 25 million after tax(profit) The total cost of running Arsenal FC appears to be more that its revenue. If the profit for 2017/18 is pretty much same, it seems to fairly obvious to me that there is not a lot of money with which to purchase players or pay them the big wages, that even the most average player seems to expect, let alone so called world class players. We might be able to buy players by taking on more debt but I do not think the present board would allow that. So we we only get the players we can afford, if any.

G and patH, really good posts addressing the point of the article.
The biggest foreseeable problem is that Kronkie now owns the club outright and the problems started, as G said, ten years ago when he obtained the majority of shares.

I hope you are supporting Arsenal because you picked them as your team. Your team to support through good and bad times, highs and lows, good managers (there have been many), bad managers (there have been some) and as I’ve supported The Arsenal for over 60 years I’ve seen a few. I still went and cheered my team on in times far worse than now, When we regularly finished mid table, played route one football and when we did win it was usually one nil. I started supporting because my dad took me when I was 5 years old and whatever happens could never support another team. I love THE Arsenal. If you don’t know why you are supporting the team then perhaps you had better latch on to another team.

That’s what the word “supporter” should mean to anyone who says they “support” a club.
A little like marriage vows, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do us part.

A “fan” follows a club when it’s winning…when it’s not they throw the baby out with the bathtub and proudly state that they will not spend any money until they do what they want them to do.
Actually they ARE the baby!!!

So sad to see that our fanbase seems to have more of the fans than the supporters these days.

By the way, one doesn’t choose Arsenal, it’s Arsenal that chooses you, if your lucky enough that is.

I took my son to his first Arsenal game when he was 7 (vs Stoke at Highbury). I always remember the look of awe on his face when he saw Malcolm Macdonald in the flesh, he’s now approaching 50 and is still a huge supporter. Turned out to be a decent season, the Spuds finished last of 22!!!!

Mr ken I will start by saying I don’t support anyone who questions his support for Arsenal. Nobody was coerced to support this club it s a natural passion and love. But your statement that fans shouldn’t and dont have the right to decide not to spend their money because of poor administration is wrong. It doesn’t affect their passion and love for the club. It only shows that the are not happy with the present situation and want a change of approach. The support still goes on. They are still arsenal fans even if they decide not to buy tickets. So people that don’t have money to buy tickets are they not fans like those that have tickets? All my life I have never had the opportunity to watch a game in the stadium but I have been criticized by my friends for defending Arsenal even at its worst days why? Because it’s my club. It’s for LIFE. We fans complain because we know there is money. We are no mid table club that complain of funds. That’s why we complain because it’s obvious that it’s the sales of club franchise that brings money to the club and tickets not trophies. But it won’t stop me from criticizing the bad vibes from Stan kronke. He is killing our club slowly and gradually sliding us to a mid table team. #KRONKE OUT

Mr Ryan, I believe we have had this discussion before, but let me explain again.
I believe anyone who earns money should spend it as they wish.
I believe I am incredibly lucky and privileged to have a season ticket.
I believe every Arsenal supporter should be able to have a s/ticket as well, but that’s not possible.
I believe every single supporter is as important as the next one, all estimated 2,000,000 of us.
I believe we all have a right to express our own views.

What I don’t believe in is that those who, for whatever reason, do not have s/tickets blame those that have for not boycotting matches in order to protest.
That is what was being said on here by others.
That is why you saw the reaction from many of the s/ticket holders, not because we think you don’t have the right to your views/opinions/choice.

I absolutely admire and respect your love of the club from wherever it is you live.
Your passion shows in your post and I really hope that one day you will see the club you love.
Keep the faith and believe me when I say that your opinion is as important as anyone’s.
I hope that makes the position clear?

Skysports confirm it now that Emery says their will be only loan deal for incoming players this January.
What kind of Club are we supporting??
Don’t think Arsenal will make top 4 with this kind of transfers.
Dunno what is really happening.

Arsenal FC under Kroenke is a joke. It is obvious that under Kroenke, despite the best efforts of Raul, Sven and Unai, without financial support Arsenal is heading towards mid table mediocrity.
Is a noticeably unhappy Suarez, who currently wants to join Arsenal still going to be so keen in the summer? There are other clubs out there quite prepared to pay the money now, let alone in 6 months time.
There are quality players out there now, who could possibly help Arsenal make next season’s Champions League, either through making the top 4 or winning the Europa League. This was worth, last time I heard, over £50 million to the Club, yet Kroenke’s Arsenal have no funds available. With zero funds the Trinity can’t possibly work miracles.
We used to mock Arsene Wenger, when he named all the players he could have signed while Arsenal Manager. You won’t have to worry about Unai Emery in a few season’s time citing players like Suarez as one of the players he could have signed, because he will move on rather than putting up with this BS.

I agree with you ozziegunner. For example, if a player was purchased for 30 or 40 million and helped club get into champions league, the payoff would cover the cost of purchase, plus a slight profit for the club. One must inject funds into a business to grow and be successful, hence the term reinvestment. This notion of self sustaining may work in biomes and ecosystems, but when it comes to professionally managed clubs, they will stagnate and eventually fall behind as the environment evolves.

How our owner believes the club can improve on previous results, standings, and trophy hauls by merely being self sustaining and stagnant while the world around us evolves, is perplexing to say the least. All his other franchises have failed in this aspect, and so will our club. Failed meaning increased competitiveness and titles. Unless you are an owner who isn’t in it for titles, but rather solely for profits, then Kronke has been successful.

Now we can’t buy only loan.Wait a year or two, and his response will be that we can’t compete with the wages being offered by top clubs.

What was the reason we moved from Highbury again? Has Kronke lived up to his end of his reasoning for the move?

ozziegunner, how prophetic your words are.
I really didn’t expect, however, for the situation to arise as quickly as it has for Unai Emery and the three musketeers.

For whatever misplaced reasoning, I believed Kronkie would have, at least backed him for the players he identified this transfer window.

Quantic Dream, your right saying that the player won’t play any differently, if of course HE sees no difference.
Wouldn’t he, perhaps, wonder 1. Why the club wouldn’t want to secure him on a permanent contract? 2. Why he would join a club that can only afford loan deals?

It certainly doesn’t do the image of the club any good when UE has to say to the media that AFC can only afford loan deals in my opinion anyway.

Was it Ivan that sold Perez for 4m pounds? Was it Ivan that allowed Wilshire,cazorla and now Ramsey to go for free? Was it Ivan that sold Campbell for 1m pounds, was it ivan that loaned out ospina with an option to sell @ 3m pounds? Was it Ivan that spent 40m pounds on ageing sokratis with little or no resale value and error prone Leno for a combined fee of about 40m pounds? (Two players who has never improved our team) was it Ivan that brought finished lichstinier to our club and took a spot an sccademy player could have taken?

I personally think the loans only deal is purely due to FFP and the increase in our wage bill from Jan 2018, we increased Ozil wages by 200K per week, brought in Miki for Sanchez which was an increase of between 50 – 80K per week & Giroud left & we bought Auba in again another huge addition to the wage bill of at least 100K per week so this time last year we increased our wage bill by minimum 350K or maximum 400K per week that’s either 18.2M or 20.8M increase per annum.We are potentially losing some big earners off the wage bill in the summer Jenko being one who’s rumoured to be on 65K per week ??? Ramsey will be gone Welbeck too Lichtsteiner & Cech, we signed Nacho up for a years extension, our wage bill needs to decrease before we can afford to sign any players permanently and this won’t be sorted until the summer when we will wheel & deal to sign players but avoid paying astronomical wages, don’t be surprised if Miki is shown the door too,this situation has happened under Ivan’s watch & it’s a mess, so I feel we have the cash to buy but as a business we are waiting for the summer to address the wage bill which must be close to breaking FFP just my thoughts and opinion but it does make sense after the mess of the losses in the transfer market & panic buys, we haven’t been getting value for money in either the transfer market or the negotiatiated wages via Dick Law,this is why a new structure is in place to bring the club closer to achieving things on a better suited budget that suits all but the fans,is just good business acumen and nothing to panic about

As long as KSE has control of the club we will never compete with the biggest clubs in the world, or even in England. They have publicly said they won’t dip into their own pockets. And if we keep giving players away for free because we can’t manage their contracts we are only going to stagnate further. I have lost all faith in this club now.

Guys all your suggestions and observations will come to naught if you don’t force the club’s hand as fans . We have the ability due to numbers . The board and the owner have to go on the long run . We boycott the club products and matches and organize weekly demos to agitate for meaningful reforms .If we keep On attending matches in droves and moaning in silent or loudly online we won’t achieve much . A dead donkey is a dead donkey . Throw it away .

It’s definitely time to scream from the top of #silentstanout billion plus dollars LA Rams stadium or his $800 million ranch that’s bigger than NYC, or from all of the Walmarts his heiress wife is making billions off of. Walmart could even give us a mega sponsorship deal, so we can compete. Still, bring in youth but fill up the roster proper like